December 2016--week 1

 End of season soccer parties--Matthew's team, the Hawks.  I had to leave so I don't have photos of the Dragons....

 My children worked TOGETHER over the course of a few weeks, especially on Sundays, to make this Nativity to display at our church's annual Nativity event.  Super proud of this!  It was placed in a pretty prominent place so it was viewed and adored by many, they loved all the attention they got from it.  And it was a major hit with many young visitors.

Stephen and Kaitlyn signed up to run the Rudolph Run 5K, but Stephen hurt his knee at Thanksgiving so I got to run it with her.  It was wet, and cold, and not many people turned out.  But we did it.  Not the best times, but it was a fun memory.  Proud of this Kaitlyn girl!

Family Photo Shoot 2016

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving 2016 was pretty epic.

We were in College Station with Stephen's family, and by family, we mean all of them except the newborn baby Bennion's because who wants to travel with a newborn?

Here is a photo reel of the highlights:

 Lindsey caught, not one but TWO fish.  I hope I never forget the squeals of delight with her yelling, "I caught a fish! I caught a fish!...."

Annual church "Turkey Bowl" with church friends where they have a separate game for the kids, thankfully all 4 of ours were on the same team so there weren't problems with competition.

 We were thrilled to have Aunt Sarah and Uncle Alex (aka "Big Al") come from UT to celebrate with us.  Sarah has some nodules on her vocal chords so she couldn't talk much but we enjoyed being with them--especially my boys who see Alex as more of a playmate than adult authority figure--they're so outnumbered with girl cousins they'll take anything!

 I squealed with delight over meeting these two cuties!  6 month old twins Evie and Jack--the house revolved around them and their poor sleep deprived parents, we helped where we could.

 We didn't get a soccer game in but did play wiffel ball--this shot is a keeper!

 The obligatory turkey treats were made--and promptly consumed

ALL the cousins who were there--only missing 2 of them.  

November 2016--week 3

Our kids meeting their new cousin Elena!  They'll nickname her Ellie and I am dying that now my kids have two families of cousins, one on either side that have a "Clara" and "Ellie".  So fun!

Matthew had two things to celebrate: he was chosen as "Marvelous Maverick" from his class and recognized in his morning assembly AND he got to take home "Cordoroy" who is the class mascot for the weekend.  Super proud of this kid and the great year he's having at school!

Lindsey redeemed her birthday present--a couple art classes by Autumn Linsley learning how to watercolor--so much fun!

November 2016--week 2

I woke up on Monday morning, I had a hundred things to do, but I had an incredible urge to spend the day "ministering" to people. One of my mom's best friend had been having a rough time.  She'd had some health problems that had her in and out of the hospital, and her daughter had given birth to a stillborn baby.  I decided that she needed a visit so I went.  When I arrived she and I cried together and visited for a couple hours.  She told me that she knew that if my mom had been able to, that she would have visited her.  I felt like I was sent by her to visit her friend.

After school, my kids and I made a couple more visits.  The first was to my visiting teaching companion, Edith Juaneh, who was celebrating a birthday and we took her flowers and sang to her.  I'm sure it made her day!

Then we went to visit a sweet friend from church, Irene, who was celebrating a birthday.  We took her flowers and sang her our famous birthday song while dancing.  It was awesome.  What was even more awesome was that Irene passed away just a few weeks later, the day after Thanksgiving.  I'm so grateful we did this.

Then, on the way home from the nursing home where Irene lives, it had begun to rain and we looked out the window and saw a rainbow.  We see rainbows often when my mom wants to send a message to us.  We were sure it was her way of saying we'd done what she wanted that day.  Tears flowed.

Rock Climbing and a new baby

We have a new member of our extended family!

Elena Charlotte Bennion was born on Friday November 4th.

She fits in perfectly already as we have the following birthday celebrations:

Lindsey--November 1

Kodie Bennion--November 2

Joseph McKneely--November 3

And now Elena rounds that out.

Stephen and I snuck away on Saturday the 5th to go meet her, she's so precious!  A full head of hair, and shorter at birth than her big sister Clara.

Also that day was a disappointing rock climbing excursion.  Stephen was asked to take a group of young men from Allen 5th ward to Lake Mineral Wells and he was going to have a side kick who was thrilled to be tagging along, but alas, weather closed down the climbing area because it was unsafe.  It was pretty frustrating.

Lindsey turns 9

This photo captures my 9 year old Lindsey:

On the walk to school on her birthday, she earned a reward to bring a stuffed animal to school, she's accompanied by her dad who is the watch dog for the day, she's carrying treats to share with her class, and taking a morning phone call from her grandma who is wishing her a happy birthday.  Can you tell this girl is loved and about to have THE BEST day ever?

We are so grateful to have this ray of sunshine in our family.  She is a friend to everyone.  She has so much enthusiasm for life but has an old wise soul, she is compassionate and caring and we LOVE her!

Halloween 2016

 Halloween 2016

Lindsey: an emoji

Kaitlyn: French Toast (all her friends were pretty "Punny" and went together)

Matthew: An America Ninja Warrior

Sam: Harry Potter

We also have a pretty neat neighborhood and there is this street that goes all out having princesses all dressed up and you can take photos with them.  Thankful for a friend who took our "littles" with theirs to go see them.  FUN!

October 2016--week 4--Science award, Mustache, Primary Program, accident with a tree, Amazing Grace, voting

 THIS girl was recognized in Science for the first 9 weeks as always willing to help another student and always prepared.  Way to go K!

 Matthew--it's always a head injury.  This morning he and Sam were tossing a football on the walk to school (like usual) and Matthew went running full speed to catch the ball (is there any other way he does things?) and ran smack into a tree in our front yard.  It really hurt and I had to scramble to cover the carpool, we walked him to school and got some ice and I had the school keep an eye on him.  But when I went up for lunch he was doing fine.  Typical Matthew

 It's HERE!  Our album has been released!  It's beautiful, wonderful, amazing, and we've been playing it non-stop, so proud to participate.  I can't pick a favorite song on it.  I love the way it makes me feel, like I'm in heaven.

 Not proud of who the choices were this year.  Have a lot of uncertainty about the future of our country.  But I'm grateful for my right to so and will continue to pray for our country.

 Matthew "MUST-Ashe" you a question.  Are you ready for the Primary Program?!  His original outfit for church got wet in the bathroom during his shower so we scrambled to find a new one and the girls found this funny mustache for him to wear around the house.  It cracked us up!  And Stephen who was shaving decided to sport a mustache too for a fun photo.

 Not missing an opportunity to capture what these 4 look like all nice for church.

And these three rocked the Primary Program today!  They shared true testimonies and sang with their whole hearts.  They knew the words to the songs and I was teary through the whole thing.  So super proud to be their mom!

October 2016--week 3--Science, Sunday, Service, and Soccer

 This week Matthew had a fieldtrip to a science center, he's getting to be good buddies with  Aaron.

 We also had a funny moment practicing for his spelling test.  "Sunday.  S-U-N-D-A-Y."  Good buddy, and what is special about Sunday?  "It's the day we go to church".  LOL!  Yes, but I was talking about the word.  "Oh, the S is capitalized".  I guess something is clicking.

 Kaitlyn and I woke up early on Saturday to go do some service.  It's called "Clothe a Child" and this organization screens families who are part of the free lunch program and offers children $100 in clothing and shoes at Kohls.  It was our privilege to work with 2 families to go shopping for clothing.

 Go Hawks!  Today's game was against one of Matthew's best buddies Jack.  We played our most aggressive game yet and killed them like 18:2.  It was amazing!

We have THE BEST home teacher in the church.  He's made it a point to attend a game of each of our children this season.  We love him and his unfailing support.  We're not just a box on his to do list.  He remembers birthdays and has a personal relationship with each of our children.  SO blessed for Tim Colman.